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Friday, February 15, 2013

Your Classroom is Your Mirror

Well, it has been awhile since my last post. I have decided to break from what I was doing with the Tao of Management and began working on something else. With that said, I would like to ask my readers to consider this next post, see if you can apply what I am suggesting and then comment on what you find.

Upon careful consideration, I have observed how I treat my students and how I perceive them to treat me as their teacher. By doing this I have come to the conclusion that every student is a mirror. I can see some part of myself in each and every one of them. This unconsciously has helped me to have the compassion for them that I do as well as gratitude for what they teach me about myself on a daily basis. I also believe that this helps me to be a better teacher. Look at the child that may frustrate you and think about how that child's behavior reminds you about some part of yourself. Maybe, a child is not getting something that you are trying to convey. This could be a deficiency or unconscious blind spot that you are not looking at within yourself to be able to better communicate with this child. I find that when we work on ourselves our relationship with our children improve. This does not just have to be with students, but also with your own children.

Please reflect on this and share your thoughts and experiences with me. If you need clarification then please ask about that too. I am really trying to analyze this process to see if there is something there to replicate and contribute to the spiritual side of the endeavor that I believe Montessori has in all of her texts, but are rarely talked about.

4 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Hi, I will have to strongly agree with all the things you have mentioned. It is true that your students/own child will be and can be a clear reflection of who a teacher, parent, mother you are to them.

I also find myself hearing how I talk to my students. Since their mind is so absorbent like a sponge, which makes me also very conscious in my actions inside the classroom.

I love this idea. I have often applied a similar theory when working with adults who frustrate me, but I never really thought about doing this with children. I am only sad that I am not working in a classroom this year, as I am eager to discover the impact of this thinking on classroom management!

Thank you...I would like to suggest that you could pass this idea on along to others that you might know in the classroom and I can see what they think as well. I appreciate your excitement, this is a small piece of a bigger concept I am working on.